Fifteen For A Moment
by suckmysharpie
Summary: Five Years after she left, she's back to prove that she can make it this time... only bigger, better and smarter. RATED M.
1. The Catalyst

**A/N: And now for something different… **

**I've been saying I'd upload this story for a few days and now that I've finished one of the others I can upload it. **

**Now if this chapter doesn't go down very well then I probably won't continue with it. So read and review and tell me if I've got anything good ******

**Disclaimer: Just in case… I know nothing. **

**xo**

* * *

**Fifteen for a Moment**

**Chapter One**

**Maggie Mae Valentine **

"I can't believe that they actually let you graduate university after all that buggering about and worrying…"

Miley snorted, "I can't believe that someone actually agreed to have a meeting about your movie script…"

Maggie hit her absent-mindedly on the arm and shook her head. They were lying on Maggie's bed at her mother's home trying to get to sleep after their busy day. The only problem for them being that today had been one of the most important days of their lives and they couldn't believe that they had actually finally made it and done everything that they wanted to do… If only they had somewhere to live and didn't have to keep sharing Maggie's bed for the unseen future they would have been on cloud nine. Right now, they were simply on a lumpy mattress. It was a good thing that they were too excited to sleep. The weeks and days coming were going to be some of the most exciting ones of their lives and there was _a lot _to think about.

"How does it feel being an actual university graduate?" Maggie asked with a yawn.

Miley laughed, "I don't know… kind of like being a university student only with a few more initials and a lot less work."

Maggie nodded, "That's actually pretty much what it is… apart from you have to find a job and you have to earn loads of money…" she paused and looked around at her with a grin, "Oh wait… you already have loads of money…"

"Har Har…" Miley rolled her eyes, "Four years and its only now that you start pulling jokes about my former life…"

Maggie smiled and nodded, "Pretty much…" she shrugged, "The money part is the only part of your former life that I actually know about… What else am I going to joke about?"

It was true that since they had met four years ago give or take a few months; Maggie Mae Valentine had never actually known the extent to her roommate's former life as a celebrity. Her mother was a British Private school teacher and all they watched was the discovery channel. Her father was a movie buff, just like she was, and they spent their lives watching movies instead of the news. They didn't read any magazine only the more intellectual newspapers that didn't have anything about celebrities in them. The internet was only used for things that they had wanted to know about. The only people, according to Maggie, that knew who she was had been her two older brothers and her nieces who had been obsessed with her television show. They however, knew nothing about her except her show and that was it. Thank goodness.

Miley had arrived in London a few suitcases in her hands and wearing all her designer clothes. She had entered her dorm with her two thousand pounds a month allowance and a hope of a fresh start away from the spotlight. Instead she had been faced with the laughing and joking of her fellow dorm mates who had made fun of her and sung "Best of Both" worlds at the top of their lungs. That night had been the worst of her life as people repeatedly walked past her room making fun of her.

She lasted a week in that hell hole until she saw one of the older students place a notice on the entry way of her dorm. It was for a room in her Notting Hill flat and she had called the number on the piece of paper in seconds.

She had won Maggie over with lunch and her movie knowledge. Miley had been won over by Maggie as soon as she asked her if she knew who she was. Maggie of course, didn't have a clue, and there and then Miley knew that it was the start of a beautiful friendship and a fresh new start that she had wanted. She moved in that day and they were instantly friends.

Maggie was two years older than Miley and she was a film student. Maggie never saw the people who teased her and Miley was glad of it. After a few months they got bored and left her to her business. Miley got on with her work and handed in her assignments. She wasn't used to normal school and it was strange. She worried a lot and Maggie was her life saver after a whole lifetime of a school teacher mother and expensive private schooling that she had never actually wanted.

Miley had decided a few months ago, when she was sure that it would soon be time to part ways and go on their separate courses that she would tell Maggie about her past life and who she had really been. Maggie had been wonderful and hadn't wanted to know who she had been. She just wanted to know she was. But it was time to stop pretending now, and now that Maggie was going to get her green light for her film and move to America, she knew that she had to tell her the truth.

"I was in a movie you know…?" she mumbled playing with her hair, "It made over fifty million dollars at the box office…"

Maggie nodded, "I know… two movies… both some of the biggest selling movies of their time…" she sighed and Miley looked around at her in shock, "And then there was the three number one albums each two to four times platinum in multiple different countries around the world… and a Grammy nomination…"

"What…?"

Miley looked at her shocked and shook her head sitting up. She was positively murderous. All this time and Maggie had known about her? She had been living with her for four years and she'd been telling her that all she knew was her name and her family's names and that was it. She was such a liar.

"You seriously didn't believe that after all this time I still knew nothing about you Miles, did you?" Maggie shook her head, "Still the ever naïve little monkey aren't we?"

Miley laughed and shook her head not being able to believe what the heck was going on, "Who the heck told you?"

"Robert and Henry…" she sighed fluffing up her pillows, "They sat me down and told me about six months after I met you…"

Of course… Robert and Henry… They were those nasty brothers of hers… the ones that constantly teased her and asked her about her fortune. The ones who always asked her to sing them a song when Maggie wasn't in the room and whose daughters had slowly come to be embarrassed that their once hero was now nothing but a dirty university student in London. They were the two most annoying men she had ever met that she wondered daily how the heck they had both found women who would marry them. It was bizarre.

"And you didn't think to mention it?"

Maggie sat up and shrugged her shoulders, "I thought we'd always end up talking about it for four years and it would bore me solid…" Miley gawped at her still ever golden honesty, "and of course the fact that you didn't want me to know played a large part in it…" she smiled, "But now it's okay because I have a favour to ask of you my little American wonder…"

Miley shook her head with a smile and looked over at her rather sneaky strange friend who she was still always grateful to have, "And what is that my little English Weirdo?"

Maggie clasped her hands in her lap, "That if I get this green light for my film, you play the lead role and prove to those critics who doubted you five years ago that you actually can still achieve your dreams… no matter what happened last time…"

Miley looked at her confused. She had no idea what happened last time. She had no clue at all… no one did…

* * *

**A/N: . … What did you guys think? Was it any good? **

**Review?**

**Love**

**BM**

**xoxo**


	2. The Old Nouveau Riche

**A/N: This is the second chapter and it's a bit different. Try and follow it and let me know if it makes no sense to you. You may not be able to tell, but I'm simultaneously writing a story and its sequel at the same time. There will be flashbacks because the two stories are only loosely linked together. **

**I'm not going to beat around the bush. This is the sequel to All the Pretty Faces. I thought that one was getting boring. So I stirred it up and came up with this. **

**Let me know how it goes… **

**DISCLAIMER: No names, places, people, objects etc in this are mine. **

**xo**

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Where are they now?**

_**LOS ANGELES NEWS ARTICLE - SEPTEMBER 23rd**_

**The Old Nouveau Riche – Where are they now? **

_Seven years ago, a group of young Disney stars ruled the pages of magazines and the headlines of every gossip website on earth. It came to the point when you couldn't turn a page, switch on a TV or sign onto your email without some kind of news about the once elite group of teenagers. There names were inescapable. Now, all these years later and after shedding their Disney counterparts, where are they and why has it been so long since we've heard from them? _

_Shelley Green delves into the world of the ex-Disney Royalty and their new lives. _

_**Demi Lovato**__ was one of the later recruits of the 2006 – 2010 Disney elite. She acted, she sung and she had the face to sell records. Of all the members of that group, she is the only one who managed to keep her career on track making a quick transition from Disney to a more adult record company in the form of Sony BMG. She released her debut album in 2008 and has gone on to release 3 more albums all since doing well on the charts. She cracked the UK and Europe in late 2009, before getting her first non-Disney movie role since being hired. The movie wasn't huge, but it did well at the box office. Lovato also rekindled her relationship with fellow Disney Star Cody Linley eighteen months ago and the pair are planning to marry in the future when their schedules will allow it. _

_As well as his blooming relationship with Lovato, __**Cody Linley**_**, **_also managed to keep his career. His popularity increased when he won the 2008 series of Dancing with the stars and carried on to appear in many other dance shows and movies. Linley now largely stars in high-budget television movies and occasionally appears on Disney shows as older characters. He recently, after promising to plan to marry his lovely lady, won the part in an in development television drama to be shown on ABC later this year. Word on the street it will be a mix between Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and the OC, detailing the lives of four small town rich kids as they embark on their journeys at university in LA. _

_Back in 2009, __**Selena Gomez **__and co-star __**David Henrie**__ were involved in a scandal involving a drug deal that went wrong. Police stormed Gomez's Texas home to find that she was part engaging in buying a hundred thousand dollars worth of cocaine to sell to her fellow celebrities. This was of course after her sex scandal, also involving as co-star. Gomez served a kind sentence of six months in jail before her and Henrie returned to Texas to live a more private life with their families. They are sometimes seen taking part in local plays and music festivals. _

_Perhaps the most successful of the Disney Elite are Hannah Montana stars __**Mitchell Musso **__and his wife __**Emily Osment-Musso**__. The pair married four years ago at the sweet and tender age of eighteen, declaring their mad love for each other in the pages of People Magazine after Hannah Montana ended. They were married in Los Angeles in a large private ceremony watched by their closest friends and relatives. A year later they had their son, Samuel "Sonny" Musso and moved to a larger house in Toluca Lake. They continued acting, Emily receiving many awards for her work in between caring for Sonny. Mitchell co-stared opposite Demi Lovato in her breakout Disney role and also DJ-ed in a Miami club for a six week long period. Their most recent work is on their talk show "At Home with The Musso's" which is filmed in the backyard of their large LA Home, which began two years ago when Sonny was still a toddler. Their talk show is often involving stories about Sonny's changes as he grows up as well as talking to many other celebrities about how their home lives change too. _

_The most recognisable downfall of the Disney Elite was when the Jonas Brother's Nick, Joe and Kevin broke up after their world tour three years ago. It was a shock to the system for millions of little girls all over the world when the brother's decided to go their separate ways and take new directions in their careers. _

_**Kevin Jonas**__, the eldest of the three brothers' is still making music, but his name can be seen inside the sleeve of an album instead on the front of it. Kevin, the most technical of the brothers set up his own Musical label and began to sign unknown bands as well as producing the albums of many other well-known musical artists. He recently produced the newest Demi Lovato CD and yet another of the Beach Girlz platinum albums. He continues to live on the street from his parents and brother, Joe in LA with his wife Danielle and their two children, four year-old Edward Kyle Jonas and two month-old Ella-Jay Jonas. _

_The most well-known of the Disney stars has to be __**Joe Jonas**__after he broke American TV record history for the amount of first-time viewings for his comedy Show "The Joe Jonas Show". The well-known late night comedy show often shows many of his celebrity friends and colleagues in funny interviews and skits that Joe writes his self. Joe has also starred in three Judd Apatow comedies all which did amazing at the box office, reeling in the cash for his multi-million dollar franchise. He is also a regular guest on American favourite "SNL" presenting and often being involved in their well-known parodying sketches. He currently resides in Toluca Lake close by to his old family home where his parents live, with his fiancée of two years Mandy Jiroux, the world famous Beach Girl and E! News presenter who recently joined the morning airwaves, co-hosting the breakfast show with Ryan Seacrest. The pair plans to marry later this year. _

_The Last of the JBs is youngest member, __**Nick Jonas.**__ He was the one who was screamed at by little girls, but after his second solo album flopped, he moved back east to New York and began acting again on Broadway. He now lives on his own in Brooklyn, often visiting his family in LA on holidays. He has also been working on some other projects but when asked he refuses to say what they are._

_Most controversial of the pack was the Queen Bee __**Miley Cyrus**__ who graciously stepped down from her throne to disappear into a private life away from the spotlight at eighteen. For over a year it was speculated what country she had moved to until recently she was seen going into the London offices of Fox Searchlight with a friend and looking a lot better than she did all those years ago when she was on top. When asked for a statement, Fox Searchlight refused to comment directly about Miley but did tell us that the young woman in question was not their for her own benefit, but in support of her friend who had recently just agreed a deal to make her movie for a budget of thirty million dollars. Miley's younger sister, Noah is currently the star of her own Disney Show which began airing last April._

_Isn't it funny how things can change in the space of a few years…?_

* * *

**A/N: So that was that… I'm going to go write another chapter of It's My Party and die slowly from this evil coming of flu, cough and cold. It really puts you in the wrong mood for writing. **

**But to all of those who read the rest of my stories, you all need to thank a certain FFAPA for inspiring me with songs. That's my secret gang. You give me songs and I will be inspired. It has greatly helped because in a few days we'll have a new chapter for Building On Failure. **

**Reviews dears**

**BM**

**xo**


	3. The Patient Loyal Partners

**A/N: QUICK UPDATE #1. **

**I wrote this chapter in half an hour and I hope it doesn't SUCK. I'm still sick, I ache, I'm sore. It's been a rough week. Hopefully I'll have more drive by the weekend. I'm so glad that I only have one class tomorrow. It makes the weekend come much quicker. Hopefully, I'll be able to update It's my Party and Building on failure majorly this weekend. I'm gonna aim for… lots of chapters ahhaha. **

**This chapter is kind of… I don't know lol… **

**xo**

* * *

**Chapter Three – Somewhere in Los Angeles… **

"Ohhhh… ahhh… Ohhhh…"

She hopped from one foot to the other as she held the magazine open in her hands. She looked around, expecting the room to be filled with another life, only to find it empty. She shook out her frustration, "SNAP!"

She turned on her heals, almost dancing her way across the marble kitchen floors with a skid, a jump and a pirouette. The magazine flapped around at her side as she ran in and out of every room in her house looking for the one person she wanted to see right now. She was excited and she was scared at the same time. It was five years since she'd been waiting for this moment and it almost seemed surreal that she saw the words in print on the page. She had spent every week going through every possible newspaper, website and magazine for the past five years trying to find something about the one subject that she had missed in the media. She missed that big sparkly smile on the middle pages and the daily news updates. She almost hated people for keeping everything from her. All she wanted was her best friend back. She wanted trips to Coffee Bean and Pinkberry. She wanted to randomly talk about being "Jonas obsessed" and how boys were idiots.

"Joe Jonas!!" she screamed becoming impatiently, "Where the heck is your fine ass?!"

She listened, running into the wall accidentally. She brushed her hair from her face recovering as she heard the buzzing of a distant voice. She looked around getting her bearings. He was in the freaking basement. It was eight in the morning and he was in the basement! What the heck could he have possibly been doing at eight in the morning in their _recreation room_? He was usually sleeping or eating at this time after being up all night recording and filming. What made today any different?

She huffed with a drawn out groan.

He was playing on his freaking computer games.

"What are you doing playing Guitar Hero at this time of the morning?!" She shrieked stopping in the doorway.

He looked around at her quickly as he continued to strum quickly away at the faux guitar, his eyes glued to the screen as he poked his tongue out in concentration. He was beating his highest score and he knew that he was going to beat the rest of his family and friends in their weekly guitar hero league that took place once a week between the rehearsal and filming of his comedy talk show. He had been practising at every opportunity he could just so that he could beat Kevin. He had been beating him non-stop every time they played each other since the first game had come out. They were now on the tenth and he was still keeping the highest score of all in the family. It was annoying and it was shady. He had to be cheating. He just had to be.

"Kevin got the highest score in history when he played the world champion in Germany… _I have to beat him, Mandy…" _He missed a note and groaned, pausing the game. He turned to his fiancée reluctantly. His face was like a petulant child who had been removed from his favourite toy and she giggled at him planting a kiss on his cheek. He smiled and shook his head with a frown. This wasn't funny… this was Guitar Hero… it was serious.

"What's up baby?"

Mandy smiled at him and handed him the magazine with a smile, "Do you want to get married soon?"

Joe's eyes brightened and he looked up at her shocked. His eyes looked down at the magazine and he smiled up at her again looking happier with the current situation than he had done. He glazed over the article and his eyes glowed with tears as he realised that his dreams really were coming true.

"She's back…"

Mandy smiled and nodded, "Apparently…" she shrugged, "Spotted in London with a friend…"

"Five years, Mandy… I can't believe this…" he whispered looking at the article again. It was difficult to take in that even after all this time she was alive.

She had been wiped from their world apart from everything that she had existed during the height of her power. She was like a lost derelict ancient city. Nothing of her had been touched in the missing years when no one had known where she was. They had searched for her and made numerous excavations to figure out the clues to her coordinates. She was their holy grail, their lost city of Atlantis. They had been looking for her and couldn't find her. She held her history and she held the secrets to the mysteries that no one knew the answers to. There had been only one other survivor of her disappearance and he refused to speak about it. Even saying her name was uttering a sin. She was forbidden to his ears.

When she had gone mysteriously missing four years ago without a word to anyone but her mother, father and family who refused to tell anyone under instruction and legally binding contract, Mandy had broken down. Joe had proposed and she had refused to marry him until the day that her best friend could be her maid of honour. It was her god-given role to be the person who helped Mandy into her married life. She was the only person she wanted standing next to her, looking almost as amazing as she did, crying as she vowed to live her life forever with the man she loved. It had got harder the longer length of time that she had been missing. She was desperate to marry Joe, but she knew that she couldn't do it without her. She needed her support. It was the best kind.

Joe looked up sceptically, "What if this isn't real? I don't want you go getting your hopes up and this _isn't_ her Mandy… I don't think that you can take it…"

Mandy looked at him, "It's her, Joe…" she nodded sternly and sat down next to him, taking the article into her hands, "It has to be her…" she rolled the magazine into a cylinder and played with it nervously, "I've read hundreds of articles that have said that she's been spotted. She's always been spotted, but no one can ever verify that it's really _her…_" she pointed to the pages, "They say that it's her… they specifically say that it was her that was there… that she was the one who was standing in those offices of those movie producers and she was openly letting herself known…" she grinned, "She's done hiding, Joe… she's coming back to us…"

Joe smiled, taking her hand and shrugged, "Then the minute we find out she's arriving in this country…" he nodded, "We call the Minister and we prepare this wedding, okay?"

Miley smiled and jumped up and down on the chair happily, "Okay…" she jumped onto him and wrapped her arms around his neck squeezing him tight. He laughed and held her even tighter. She sighed and shook her head, "I can't believe that Miley's finally coming back…"

Joe nodded and kissed her cheek, "Do you think we should tell, Nick?"

Mandy moved away and frowned, "Do you _really_ think that's a good idea, Joseph?" she folded her arms, "Would you like to walk down the aisle or be wheeled down in it in a chair…?"

"I just think that it would be a good idea to let him know that the reason he's been all emo for the past god knows how long is returning to the country and is probably going to make a big splash when she does it…" Joe explained with a sigh, "I don't want him killing anyone when he finds out…"

Mandy raised her eyebrows and stood up with a smile, "Fine… but you're doing it…"

* * *

**A/N: When is this story set? Erm… Miley's going to be turning 23 during this. Assume that's she's just done a three year long degree in London. What year is that? Like 2015… 7 years into the future…**

**Correct my maths if I'm wrong.**

**Reviews?**

**BM xo**


	4. The Longest Journey

**A/N: This chapter is for c-melle who requested it. **

**I've been meaning to update this story for weeks but haven't managed too. I think I've got one or two completed chapters for this story, but as I've said on another update, school, getting into university and writing my novels are my main concentrations these days. Once I've completed all my examinations, got my places in university and maybe knocked out a good portion of a novel will I maybe continue these stories. I'm not really feelin it lol. I think I need some inspiration :)**

**Love and things, xo**

**

* * *

Chapter Four – The Longest Journey**

"So you're an American citizen…?"

She leant her elbow on the counter and tried not to fall asleep. They had been awake all night preparing for this journey and she had been too nervous to sleep the few hours that they had spare to sleep. She was now regretting it, her stomach was lurching and her eyes were falling closed at the woman's bored and monotone words. Her papers were in her hands as Maggie stood annoyed beside her, already checked in and waiting to go and get some breakfast. The woman couldn't quite seem to get to grips with the fact that Miley was from the US. She had asked her numerous amounts of times in the last thirty minutes and she didn't seem to want to believe it. Miley had come to the conclusion that she was either stupid or highly bored.

"Yup…" Miley nodded, her eyes closed, "Born November 23rd 1992… Franklin, Tennessee…"

"You're American but you haven't been back to America since you were nineteen…" she cocked and eyebrow, and looked right at Miley's dozing face. She paused waiting for Miley to awake quickly with a jump and nod to her, "Isn't that a bit weird?"

Miley rolled her eyes and looked at the woman before her. She was in her mid-forties and she looked as though this was exactly what she had been doing since the moment she had left school and got her first job. She seemed to be asking all these questions out of determination to get something other than questions about flight arrivals from her work. She was nosy and rude and it really wasn't the nicest thing for Miley to deal with considering that she couldn't remember the last time that she closed her eyes and slept.

"I've been studying…" she ground her teeth as she lowered her voice, "I didn't have time to keep travelling for twelve hours each time I wanted to go back."

The woman perked up, "So you've been learning here then? What was it? University? College?" she paused smiling, "You're American… so it must have been some media-oriented apprenticeship…"

Miley shook her head her ringed hands gripping onto the desk, "I was at University… and I'm going back home so that in three weeks me and my friend here can make a movie that you'll probably be watching on a Sunday afternoon when you're not sat on your ass nosing into other peoples business…" she took a deep breath, "Now if you would like to hurry the heck up and check in my luggage and help me to get my trip safely back home on the way… I'd greatly appreciate it…"

The woman went a deep dark red and gave her a smile that resembled the face of someone who had just happily sucked a tart lemon and nodded her head, "Of course… I'm sorry ma'am… I'll just ask you a few questions and get you on your way…" her face sucked in tartly, "if that's okay…?"

Miley smiled and slapped her hands onto the desk moving forward, "Sure… fine…" she shrugged her shoulders, "whatever gets me into the _dang_ departure lounge…"

She nodded and looked down at her computer, screwing up her eyes to look at the screen. Miley held her breath ready to answer the questions quickly.

"Is it correct that you are an American Citizen… born in Franklin, Tennessee?"

Miley looked at her hopelessly and shook her head. With a sigh, she slammed her head down onto the counter and began to sob frustrated. It was going to be a _very, very _long night.

* * *

"This movie's crap."

Miley looked around tiredly at Maggie and shook her head. She still hadn't slept and it was beginning to hurt how tired she was. She would have quite happily dropped to the floor right now and slept for another three weeks, having her own mini fall hibernation on a British Airways flight to New York. Her body ached and her head ached and nothing seemed to be able to work together. It was like her limbs and her brain had argued and they were deliberately not working together, proving problematic when she got up to go to the bathroom. She didn't know what was in her that was making it so difficult for her to sleep, but it was becoming impossible. Something just simply wasn't working. It wasn't nerves, and it wasn't anything else… there was no reason to why she should still be so tired. There had to be some way that she could fall asleep.

"I don't care…" she mumbled shaking her head and placing the same magazine she'd been reading the entire flight over her eyes to protect her from the lights. She'd barely read a page, but it was perfect for isolating herself from the rest of the packed aeroplane cabin. She was scared, terrified almost, that someone would recognise her now that she was almost back on US soil.

_"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are currently flying at thirty thousand feet and will arrive in New York City, John F. Kennedy Airport in approximately ninety minutes…"_

"Finally…" Miley mumbled almost dead from fatigue, "We can get the heck off the plane and get to the hotel…"

She instantly began pulling items of clothing from her travel bag and her much loved make-up bag that was always taken with her wherever she went. Maggie let out a laugh as she watched her, pulling on layer upon layer of clothing and fixing her face in a pocket mirror until she was barely recognisable from all the black eyeliner and mascara. She looked like she had to very comedic black eyes as she tugged on a thick purple beanie hat that attracted the eye and yanked the hood of her thick heavy black hoodie atop of it until it almost seemed impossible to see her face. Next came the very risky business black wayfarer sunglasses that almost covered half of her face, before she topped the whole outfit off with a dark scarf to cover the rest of her fine complexion.

"You brought a disguise…?" Maggie asked before a smile fell to her lips, "Or are you robbing a bank?

Miley sighed nodding as she closed the mirror and turned to her friend, "You really don't get the whole 'ex-biggest teenager girl in the world' thing, do you?"

Maggie couldn't help but smile at her nerves. She had been like this all week and it had only got worse as the minutes went on. She was a nervous wreck, a blubbering idiot who yelled her demands when the alarm bells in her head started ringing that she was gonna be seen. Maggie highly doubted that anyone who saw her after all these years of her being missing would even recognise her. She'd changed a lot since the moment she'd arrived on British soil. She was once a messy-haired, well-dressed, jewellery ridden American girl who walked around thinking that she was going to get jumped at every angle. She was now the girl who walked around Notting Hill London with her hands in her pockets knowing that she had the world right in front of her. Returning to the US had already brought to light her biggest fears and worries and it was only going to become worse. Miley depended on her tube ride over to Hyde Park every Sunday for her morning walk. Where on earth in America, her estranged home, would she find a place that she could feel safe again? For her… being in this country had always meant uncertain safety in what she did. From the ages of fourteen to seventeen she had been followed by cameras and weird middle-aged old men. Even before that, she had always known the spotlight.

Her time away from it had caused her to fall into a fake sense of normality… she needed to get used to it again… she needed to be reminded of the flashes and the yells. She would need help when she felt like she was going to break… and Maggie was going to be there every step of the way…

"I understand that you're scared…" Maggie took her hand, "I understand that this is a big step for you… coming home and doing all this again…" Maggie smiled as Miley pouted as usual, "And I understand that you're tired and you need to sleep…"

Miley nodded sadly as Maggie pulled her forward and gathered her into her arms. She kissed her on the top of the head and smiled as the young woman she thought of as a 'little sister' slowly but surely fell into a slumber right there on her shoulder. Maggie let out a laugh and shook her head. This was going to be a long road ahead…

"Welcome to Baggage collection…" Miley said sarcastically as she paced backwards and forwards, "We try our hardest to make sure you never get your belongings back… but for now… be irritated by the annoying CLICKING NOISE THE CAROUSEL MAKES!!!"

She kicked the luggage carousel as they stood in the almost empty room apart from the old couples on the other side who looked at her questioningly as she fumed at the mechanical beast. Her fists tightened around her hand luggage and she shook her head at Maggie who was stood her arms folded patiently. Her calmness and lack of annoyance at how long they had been standing there, made Miley even more positively murderous.

"How are you so freaking calm about this?!?" Miley asked her still pacing, her Chucks squeaking on the tiled floor when she turned sharply every few dozen seconds, "It's been nearly an hour and we're still waiting for our luggage and you're just standing there pleased with yourself? _How is this not pissing you off?_"

Maggie shrugged, hitching her bag further up her shoulder, "I don't know… I'm British… patience comes in the blood I guess…"

Miley shook her head, angrily, "How hard is it? We didn't even have that much luggage?" A smile crept up on her face and she grinned at Maggie, "Aren't your cigarettes in your case?"

Maggie's face dropped and her eyes narrowed. That was a low blow, a very low blow… reminding her of those wonderful white sticks of beauty that could save her from any situation if she needed them. It had been three months since she had been living on fifteen cigarettes a day and only six months since she was on two packets a day. She had come so far. She lived for her weekly cigarette and she had a few more days until she could have her next cycle of much loved nicotine and tar bringing her alive. Miley knew that mention of the word "cigarette" had been banned as it made her think and think about that wonderful day when Maggie felt that she could die and be happy that came once a week.

"Just because you've turned into a walking PMS machine, doesn't mean I have to be," she said calmly, "Stop being a bitch… and sit your arse down where you can stop annoying those poor little old couples who keep giving you _the worst_ death glares I've ever seen…" she shook her head and waved her hand, "I'm serious… they're some ugly looks… worse than when my Grandmother came to visit and found you and Toby drunk as farts eating that month old Chinese from the fridge and smoking green that you'd bought from Dean…"

Miley's face instantly turned green as she crouched down onto the small case that Maggie had brought with her as hand-luggage. It was filled with all their documentation for the film and it was more important than either of their lives. It was the source of their futures and it had the only final draft of the script that Maggie had spent the last four years writing. If they lost that case, or if it got damaged in anyway, they were screwed.

"Are you ever gonna tell me the real reason that you're so scared to be in this bloody country or not?" Maggie asked calmly, her hands placed in her lap like the cute little Britton she was, "I promise I won't tell anyone about your ex-stoner past…"

"That was a difficult time for me!" she gasped nervously. She lowered her voice, "_stop talking about drugs in the airport!"_

"So are you going to tell me?" Maggie ignored her and cocked an eyebrow thinking that she'd won.

Miley sighed and shook her head, grabbing Maggie's hand and holding it tightly, "Never…"

* * *

The town car driver that came to pick them up from the airport was apparently annoyed that it had taken them two hours to exit the airport and get their luggage. He was more annoyed when he had to cram what they had called their minimal luggage into the small trunk of his black Lincoln Town Car. Neither woman had a clue where they were going, or what they were supposed to be doing while they were in the big apple. All they knew was that once they had arrived at their destination, they were to open that case that had been packed the day before filled with the Fed Ex-ed package that seemed to be the most secret thing in the world and see what their entire itinerary for the next five months was courtesy of their producer.

"So what's your name?" Miley asked as she leant towards the driver, her hair falling in her face.

"Lyle," he mumbled to her as he stared at the road. They were still busy even though it was ten at night. "Your boss called me and hired me to be your driver for your stay. Anytime either of you ladies wants to go somewhere, you have to call me and I'll come get you… anytime… any place…"

Miley laughed and tapped him on the shoulder with a smiled, "Why on earth would you ever agree to such a terrible job?"

He shrugged and pressed a few buttons on his fancy dashboard, "Because it pays well… and I get to drive in this beautiful car for hours and hours on end…"

"You like driving?"

He nodded, "It's the only thing I could do after I left school…" he shrugged his shoulders and Miley swatted at Maggie as she giggled behind her, "It's the only thing I've ever been good at…"

Miley nodded, "Where are you from Lyle?"

"Kentucky," he smiled, "Moved to The Bronx with my wife when we were nineteen…"

Miley smiled, "oh wow… that's cool…" she pointed a finger at herself, "I'm from Tennessee…"

He laughed and shook his head, "I know…" he paused glaring at her through his rear view mirror, "I know who you are…" he pulled to a stop in front of the traffic and looked around at her, "I had a ten year old daughter five years ago when you gave everything up, Miley… I was one of the troubled fathers who worked their asses off to get tickets to all your shows and I dealt with the tears when no one could tell us where you went…"

Miley's face dropped and she bit her lip, "Wow…"

"You were her hero…" he said and Miley couldn't help but pick up the annoyance in his voice. Part of her began to wonder why he had even agreed to take this job because of how annoyed at her he sounded. She was soon answered, "She still has posters of you in her room and she still hopes that you'll come back to the spotlight sooner or later…" he paused, "I'm guessing that she never thought it would be like this… you've changed a lot…"

Miley became guilty and she pressed her cheek to the leather of the chair as Maggie watched on, "Tell her that I'm sorry…"

He nodded and gave her a smile through his rear view mirror, "I'll tell her, but I think she knows already…"

They entered the city, the city that Miley hadn't set eyes on in five years. She sighed and sat back against her chair looking around nervously. This place was America. She was back in America. She was home and it felt weird. Five years was a long time for someone to be away from a place. Places changed quickly in this age they were living in. In cities like this… it was minutes before everything shuffled again. It was always buzzing, always moving and always changing. But it was the people that Miley was worried about…

Maggie leant over to her and took her hand, "Just admit that you're scared and we can get this over and done with…"

Miley looked around at her momentarily and nodded. She was right. She was always freaking right. That was why Miley loved her so much. She could always tell the truth. She never lied. She was like a walking, talking, breathing human conscience. Since the moment Miley had met her, Maggie had made more sense of her life that she ever could do. Miley always asked her why she wasn't a psychologist instead of a writer and a filmmaker. Maggie's reply, every single time was that she was simply a philosopher. She just said what she thought and tried to make sense of everything, it just so happened that every single time she got things right.

"I'm scared," she admitted almost silently for the first time since all those months ago when Maggie had announced that she would have to keep her side of the bargain.

Maggie smiled and brushed the hair from her face, "Then that's okay…" she squeezed Miley's hand, "We can cope with that… all we have to deal with is a day at a time…"

**A/N: You like? Let me know folks XD**

**I like this chapter. It was my feeble attempt at humour.**

**xo**


	5. The First Glimmer of Hope

**A/N: I don't know about you, but I'm starting to wonder where NJ is in this story… well… here's a chapter that gives us a little insight into his life. Hopefully someone will mix it up sooner or later XD **

**Reviews are welcome ;)**

**xo**

**

* * *

Chapter 5 – The First Glimmer of Hope **

"Are you watching the baseball?"

Nick rolled his eyes as he muted the TV for a moment as the players stepped out onto the pitch looking as proud and happy as ever. This was a very important game… and Nick was not about to miss it for anything. He was not about to even miss one piece of commentary for it. If it wasn't for the fact that if his mother found out she'd kill him, he had refrained from unplugging the phone and simply watched the TV in peace.

"No, Edward…" he lied with a sigh as he took out his diet coke and sat it down onto the coffee table in front of him, "I'm not watching the baseball… I'm doing some work…"

"You're an actor…"

Nick rearranged the phone that was currently resting between his neck and shoulder and sat up annoyed that yet again, for the third time that week, his lonely, annoying neighbour who lived with his mother next to door to him was calling him asking stupid questions again, interrupting his important game watching activities. "I'm aware of that Edward… but I'm also a songwriter and I've been asked to right a song for this musical…"

"What musical…?"

"I don't know Edward…" he sighed he could hear the normal sounds of Edwards bag of chip rustling along with the buzz of his own TV and the baseball game that Nick was currently missing because of his interference, "They haven't really told me anything about it… I'm just a songwriter…"

"Do you need any help?"

"No…" Nick said bluntly, sipping his coke and shaking his head at the TV as they were quite obviously talking about something interesting. If only he knew… "I need some peace and quiet and maybe a shower… I was up at four am this morning with Elvis…"

"What's wrong with Elvis…?"

"Nothing…"

"Then why were you awake at four am…?"

"Because I took him for a walk before I started work at five-thirty…"

"But you're an actor… why are you acting at five-thirty?" Edward stated plainly, "There's no theatres open at five-thirty…"

Nick sighed and rubbed his temples. He was twenty-three and he was sure that something was going to kill him sooner or later. If it wasn't Edward, it would be his mother, if not her, his brothers would be his demise… his final straw would be Elvis… and he couldn't even think about how bad that would be. He loved his dog… he was the only one who knew how life had been for the past five years. He was his trusty best friend. It was a blessing that he couldn't talk back. He didn't need another person telling him how stupid he was.

Nick, for some reason, was glad when his phone clicked for another phone call. He sighed and excused himself to the yells of Edwards's requests of dinner that week and groaned accepting the next call.

"_You tell him!" _ He heard as he put the phone to his ear.

"_No… he's your brother!"_

_"He's your best friend!" _

_"Only because he's the only guy I know that you trust to be near me alone! He's your brother!"_

_"You tell him!" _

_"No!"_

_"Dang it, Mandy… just tell him and get it over with so we can go to Mario's for Pizza!"_

He sighed, "Whatever it is, can you guys just tell me so I can watch my baseball game and order a pizza myself?"

"_Holy _crap!" Mandy said suddenly aware of his presence in their conversation, "Hey bro, how you doing?"

"Amanda…" Nick sighed flinging his legs to lie across his couch, "I will repeat… baseball… me… pizza… you… hang up…"

Mandy laughed and he could hear that she was trying to figure out what she was going to say while simultaneously still trying to drag his big brother to the phone to do her dirty work. It was always the same. They worked as a team… they had done for five years. It was annoyingly charming how they would play off of each other to make everything seem okay. Nick had discovered all kinds of bad news via the comical workings of what had to be the greatest couple he had ever met… after his parents… They had gone through so much hardship and still managed to remain the backbone of everybody… helping them along when everything seemed to go bad.

"It's nothing important…" she mumbled unsurely and he instantly knew that he wasn't going to be happy with the news that he was given. Mandy had her nervous voice on, trying to protect her even though he could not do such a thing without travelling a few hundred miles.

He shook his head and slowly turned his TV up, "Just tell me Mandy…"

She took a deep breath in and he prepared himself to tell her he didn't care. He waited patiently.

"Miley's back."

Without a second thought he slammed the phone down onto the receiver and his gut bubbled with anger. That name, as they had known for five years, was banned. That name was not to be spoken, thought or even remembered in his presence. It was nothing to him any longer and he could not help but want to murder something every time he heard it, read it and sometimes, in the back of his memory, think it. He didn't want to hear that name anymore… and he hadn't since those first six months all those years ago. He hadn't heard it since he had almost knocked out his two brothers and father, fighting to chase after that name and find it, yell at it and tell it how stupid it was. Soon after, it became nothing to him. It would never be anything to him again. He didn't care. That was the past. He was living in the future. What did it matter to him that she was finally showing her face after all this time? It was about time. She had been fast approaching appearing pathetic rather than mysterious. Nick had always been up on the game. He knew that she was pathetic already.

"I don't care, Mandy…" he said as the phone instantly rang again. If he hadn't answered, it would have been ringing all night until he eventually had a shouting match via speaker with his brother and almost sister-in-law before he was ruined to sleep for the rest of the night and Elvis and he went to the park for a three hour walk around the large Brooklyn Neighbourhood.

_"Is this Nicholas Jonas?" _said the thick British accent on the other end of the phone, "_My name is Toby… Toby Atkins?" _Nick remained silent as he listened to the unfamiliar accent, "_I'm the casting director of the movie "The Lost Summer". You sent your audition tape to us in London to see if you could be a part of our New York audition session?"_

Nick's eyes widened, "Oh! Hi… hello…" Elvis was barking from his quick and loud realisation, "Yes… this is Nick. How can I help you?"

Toby laughed and Nick could almost see him shaking his head thinking about how much of a dick he was. He sounded desperate and it probably was because he was. Since the music career had gone down the drain, he lived on his acting parts. He'd sent off at least forty audition tapes a week and in the past three years he had only heard back from only thirty of them. His work schedule was so scarce at the moment that he was living off his savings again and his mother was calling him at least twice a day to ask him if their was any news yet. If he had to tell her "No mom" one more time… he was seriously considering killing himself. It was simply embarrassing.

"_Well, I just wanted to call to tell you that we loved your audition tape… well I did… the director and the producer have been so busy lately we haven't really seen each other… this movie's being made in a month or so and it's a six week shoot until the holidays… so… anyway…" _Nick knew this part of the conversation. It was the maker or the breaker. For Nick, it was usually the breaker.

_"So… I just wanted to ask you if you could make it to an audition session next Thursday." _

Nick jumped up and bounced softly on his feet trying not to seem to excited and pathetic, "Next Thursday?" he mumbled coolly, "Thursday should be good… where is it?"

"_I'll email you…" _Toby informed him, "_You should know the details by tomorrow… and then on Thursday you just have to appear and do your best." _

Nick smiled, "That's awesome… thank you."

_"No problem, don't worry about it," _he said reassuringly, "_You'll be great."

* * *

_**A/N: Nick? Actor? Toby? British casting director? Miley and Maggie? Making a film in New York City? Still needs main actors? Hmmm… I don't know what the heck that could mean. **

**But then again I'm hyper from the HM movie trailer XD XD. **

**Give me feedback ;)**

**B xo**


	6. The First Twelve Hours

**A/N: I hate school work… here's the sixth chapter. I hope you like it ;) **

**xo

* * *

CHAPTER SIX: THE FIRST TWELVE HOURS**

Neither Miley nor Maggie slept when they arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel. They were too excited and too hyper to know of all the things they had to do in the next week. They had meetings with production designers, interviews with film magazines and newspapers (which Miley would bow gracefully out of, leaving Maggie to fend for herself), shopping trips with costume designers and tours around what would be the sets of the movie that they had worked on for so long. They had auditions and script read throughs. They had lunches with some famous actors and they would be constantly busy for quite a while.

It was a break from their weeks of waiting around in London after Miley's graduation. They'd had so many things to sort and to prepare that it had seemed a lifetime that they had been lying in Maggie's bed making this bet. Everything had come so far since they had been in London. They were now fancy movie directors and producers and filmmakers and –GAH! It was exciting just thinking about what they were becoming… for one half of their duo… it was more than they had ever been before, for the other half it was deadly scary.

"I forgot how great American TV is…" she was clicking through the channels as she ploughed her way through the ounces and ounces of fatty foods and sugary goodness that she had sent Maggie out for. It had only been two hours and she was already settled in her new little home. Maggie, simply couldn't wait until they figured out their living arrangements. This hotel room, was too small for two women in their early twenties.

"You didn't even watch TV in the UK, idiot…" Maggie mumbled from her place at the small desk she had asked to be in their room. It was already stacked, organised and in action as she shuffled the papers and looked at the schedule that had been in the Fed-ex package.

"Exactly… everything was terrible…" Miley flicked through the channels her mouth filled with candy and smiled at her older friend. She looked from Maggie's angry face to the TV and took a double take quickly, pressing pause on the live TV (she loved technology) and stared at the smiley face on her TV.

"What is it?" Maggie asked eying her as she stepped slowly towards the television like she'd seen a ghost.

For Miley, it was like she had.

"Mandy's on E!?" she mumbled as her once best friend stood in the studios next to Ryan Seacrest and presented all that days news. Angelina had adopted another child (not even Miley knew how many there were anymore) and Britney was remarrying K-fed again. It was also terribly important for this little semi-reunion between the two ex-best friends.

"Mandy?" Maggie said walking over and taking the bag of cheetos from one of Miley's hands and shovelling a few into her mouth, "Oh Mandy!" she nodded, "Yeah… she's been presenting for about six months… she's really good at it… apparently they were in talks to give her a talk show but she said she refused it because of the beach Girlz and Joe's comedy show…" Maggie shrugged as Miley's eyes widened with each word, "Apparently they might be getting their own reality show now that they're getting married… like Newlyweds but better…"

"They're getting married!!!" Miley shouted instantly alarming Maggie who threw the cheetos into the air with a cloud of puffy orange, "When did this happen!"

"I don't know… I thought she'd always been engaged to him…" she shrugged picking up the now empty bag and looking at it longingly. She dropped it onto the table and proceeded to drop to her knees to pick up the sea of cheese puffs that littered the floor, "Ever since I've watched her she's always been engaged to him… there's always stories that they've made a date but there's never any definitive date. How do you not know all this?"

Miley shook her head staring at the TV still, "I don't read tabloids and I never watch TV."

"But you Google…"

"My mom has this… thing… put on my computers so that it blocks out certain pages…" she shook her head, "I don't know what it is… just that I've had it that way since I was eighteen years-old and the rumours of my departure began to upset me."

Maggie stood up, shoving the handfuls of Cheetos into the empty bag with a sigh, "You mean to tell me that even when you act normal you still have an army of personnel protecting you from rumours…?" she stood up and headed for the trash can, dunking the bag into it with a groan, "That's just weird, dude…"

Miley laughed hopelessly, "You really _don't_ get the whole most-famous-teenage-girl-in-the-world thing do you?" she repeated for what seemed like the billionth time since her friend had got the green light for her movie, "Some of the stuff that people used to say was really mean. _Really, really mean…" _

The phone rang, and saved her. She sighed as Maggie headed for it as it buzzed with that annoying typical hotel ring that she'd been used to for so many years. It brought her a reminiscent rush and she couldn't understand why. She hadn't stayed in a hotel since the night that her mother rushed her away from her house to that tiny hotel by the airport merely hours before they had jetted her to London where she would stay for the next period of her life. That night, the hotel phone had rung off the hook with phone calls from her father who was back home fighting off the questions of the paparazzi. He had asked her so many times, just to talk to her friends… just to explain to them why she was doing this. But she had ignored him, and she had let the phone ring as her mother tried to calm her aching tears. It had seemed for days after she had left that hotel room, that the ringing in her ears would never stop… until finally she blanked it out along with the rest of her old life.

"Um… I'm sorry… There's no one here with that name…" Maggie asked, "Can I ask who this is?" Miley turned to listen and frowned, "I'm sorry, there's no Miley here… we're not accepting visitors"

Miley gasped and stood up, almost running to Maggie who held the phone. She waved at her, getting her attention.

"Who is it?" she mouthed silently.

"I don't know. Someone's looking for us in the lobby." Maggie replied silently mouthing the words back to her. Her eyes widened as she continued to listen, "You know that she's in there and you're going to break security to come up to our room unless she talks to you about her new movie and return to the celebrity world?"

Miley grabbed the phone, "Listen here dipshit… I'm not talking to no one or nobody. I don't have to talk to you about anything because it's my life, bub and I'll do what I want. So how about you get your pathetic ass out of our hotel and wait for me to give an exclusive to someone I actually think will do something productive with it instead of making me out to be the exact opposite of what I'm fucking not!"

Maggie stared at her and she fumed at how much anger she was letting out. She really was the epitome of walking PMS. She was angry. She was stressed and she was goddamn hormonal. The first few weeks were definitely going to be the hardest.

"Did the British teach you how to Cuss like that, young lady?"

Miley's eyes brightened at the sound of her mother's southern twang. She didn't care that she'd just cussed her into smithereens. She was yards away from her mother and she hadn't seen her in months. She needed to see her, she missed her and she wanted a stupid hug that would last for hours.

The phone dropped from her hands and she smiled as she escaped the confines of the hotel room and into the hallway. She ran along to the end of the hall and pressed the call button for the elevator a million times. She urged it on until the doors sprung open and she impatiently jumped around the empty metal box until the chime of the bell came and the doors opened into the lobby. She ran breathlessly through the gold gilded rooms looking for that familiar face, the one she had missed seeing each and every day. She bounced from incoming guest to outgoing guest, kicking over suitcase and backpack. She smiled wildly as she saw the same mane of slick blond hair bobbing by the front desk in glee. Half a dozen people looked around and gasped at her shocked. Not that it mattered; they were only going to find out anyway. Everyone was going to want a piece of her once the press release officially went out the next day publicly announcing that they were weeks away from shooting their movie. It was the document that put the final stamp on her definite attempt to return to fame. After that document was seen by all the right eyes, there was no going back and no hiding. She couldn't return to Maggie's comfy home after this. She was stuck unless she found an even better hiding place.

She hit her mother hard as she wrapped her arms around the slowly and kindly aging woman's neck, holding her tightly. They hadn't seen each other since spring break and it had been days since they last spoke. She had been avoiding her mother, knowing that her mother would just make her more and more nervous about her arrival. She hadn't spoken to anyone really except for Maggie. But now, here she was in the middle of one of the most famous and most popular hotels in one of the hugest cities in the world, dressed in her jammies, her hair swept back into a ponytail and disguise-less.

But with her mother's arms wrapped around her warm and tight… she knew that she would be safe.

She burst into tears onto her mother's shoulder overwhelmed and shook her head as she nuzzled into the same smell she's accustomed to and found solace in over her twenty-two years of life.

_"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" _she sniffed with a whisper, _"I would have come to meet you…"_

Her mother laughed and shook her head, "Where would the surprise be in that?"

Miley laughed and shook her head looking up at her mother, "_What are you doing here?" _

She didn't know why she was whispering… it was probably something to do with the few dozen people staring at her wildly wondering what she was doing in her pyjamas in such an expensive establishment.

"I'm your executive producer, silly!" her mother smiled and kissed her on the forehead. Miley smiled as her mother's face sunk in what could only ever be pride and understanding, "Plus, Miley, How could you not come home and I not be here waiting so say the one thing I've wanted to say for five years?"

"What's that?"

Tish grinned and clutched at her cheeks proudly. She was more beautiful than ever.

"Welcome home, baby girl…"

* * *

**A/N: Feedback? Kind of a pointless chapter… but there to read none the less.**

**B xo**


	7. The First Sign That Somethings Not Right

**A/N: I hope this satisfies. It's the beginning to what I'm planning to be a very, very bad ass and risqué story. I just hope you can handle it ;D**

**Review are wonderful. **

**I have half a chapter of Building On Failure and The Truth about love written. I just have to get some kind of focus going on. I haven't got much patience lately. I fell down the stairs and I've bruised my thigh and hurt my hip and I'm **_**really **_**in pain. So I'm trying my best =)**

**Much love xo

* * *

Chapter Seven – The First Sign That Something's Not Right**

"Thank you for coming…" Maggie said a little less brightly than she had done at the first audition, "We'll be in touch…"

The man who stood in front of them was young, handsome and had that glint in his eye that used to attract Miley like a moth to a flame, but now it just made her role her eyes and shake her head in disgust. She hated playboys. She hated them even more when she knew that they kept winking at her like they had a nervous affliction because they only wanted to be seen as the ex-superstars flame when she catapulted back into stardom. They would have a long time to wait for so many reasons. He winked again and her mouth opened in disgust and she flexed her fist to stop herself from flipping him off when her mother was looking down at the next resume. Maggie was walking across the floor, escorting him from the room as he continued to look at Miley with creepy staring eyes as he approached the door. Maggie's feet sped him up as did her hands as they forced him from the room, noticing his wandering gaze. Within minutes, and a continued glare across the room at the much more filled out and curvaceous Miley, Maggie had kicked him to the curb and slammed the door in his face.

"So is he a yes, no or maybe?"

She joked facing the table of her producers, including Miley, her mother and Toby Atkins their casting director (AKA Maggie's unrequited love). Her hands were on her hips as she looked at each of them in the eye jokingly. She finally looked at Miley who had the guy's resume in her hands, her fingers gripped to the top edge to rip it right down the middle the sound echoing around the speechless room and bringing a sigh to all the people in the room.

Maggie smiled, "I'll take that as a 'no' then."

Miley gulped down her water that sat in front of her and shook her head "That's five guys now that I have sat through their half hour long auditions while they mentally penetrate me," she sighed angrily and slammed the water bottle down onto the table as her mother gawped at her previous statement, "I don't think I should be here…"

Maggie rested one hand on her hip as she held out the other helpless to Miley, "We need you here… you're the freaking lead actress and we're auditioning for the lead actor…" she laughed, "How else are we meant to know if theirs any chemistry…?"

Miley shrugged her shoulders; "I don't know…" she grasped for an answer and shook her head, "Guess?"

"I can't guess the chemistry…" Maggie stated.

Miley smiled, "You're a director and you know me better than anyone… you know the kinds of people I click with… you're like… a genius or something… come on?" Miley stood up and walked around the table to wrap her arm around Maggie. She was buttering her up, "Just the afternoon off? I've been here two days and all we've been doing is sleeping and auditioning… why don't you give me the afternoon off to spend with my mother to go shopping?"

Maggie narrowed her eyes and her and tugged her t-shirt down over her stomach. Miley continued to grin, pretending to be the angel that Maggie _knew _she wasn't at all, squeezing her shoulders in friendly banter and giving her a wink every so often.

Her gaze narrowed even more in realisation and she shook her head.

"When's the sale?"

Miley smiled guiltily. Busted.

"Three o'clock."

"Why can't you go on your own?"

"Because I need to bond with my mother…"

Maggie shook her head, "Why can't you do that at dinner tonight?"

"Because you and Toby will be there…"

Maggie's mouth fell open and then she realised. Just like the past three years, Miley was trying to initiate the exact same thing she'd been attempting to initiate since she'd goaded Maggie into admitting while _drunk _at the first years ball she'd crashed in boredom along with Toby, that she had a thing for him. She was trying to get them to talk to each other again after that drunken kiss they had shared at the graduate's ball three months ago. Miley too, like Maggie, was getting bored of Toby's one word answers to everything that Maggie had said to him since. They used to be unified in a trio. Toby and Maggie had been protecting her for years. When they kissed, it threw out the balance.

"Fine…" Maggie spat, "I'll walk you downstairs… I'm due a cigarette…"

Miley's grin grew over her face and her brow rose in victory, "Okay… you do that…"

* * *

They walked out onto the Greenwich Village sidewalk and looked around to find the doorman who was hailing Miley and Tish the car. Tish was walking three steps ahead as the two young women behind her talked heatedly, the older one playing with her cigarette packet agitatedly, the younger looking pleased with herself that she was making a point and being obvious and that the elder was letting her.

"I don't care if he's not talking to me…"

"I do!"

"You're not the one who kissed him!"

"But I am the person who's having to live with the fact that both of your loins are _burning_ for each other!"

"_Miley_!"

"What?! It's true..." Miley shrugged protectively, "It's obvious… Why pretend that it's not true?"

"Because it _isn't_ true!"

"Ha… whatever sweetie…"

The doorman did his job and waited for Miley and her mother to step into the car as he held the door open. Maggie stared at Miley as she slid into the car next to Tish. She opened the window and leant out watching Maggie stare at her, cigarette packet open, one ready to be lit, and her mouth wide open in shock. Why did this smart arse little rat always win?!

Miley continued to flash her that toothy grin as she rested her arms on the doorframe.

"When you too finally give into you inner desires and admit that you're hot for each other…" Miley smiled and held her hand out for Maggie to take something. She stepped forward onto the road and obliged her hand. Miley took it and placed something in it, holding it there for a moment before closing Maggie's hands around it, "Make sure you're not stupid about it…"

Maggie looked at her confused and watched, hand still outstretched as Miley indicated for Lyle to drive to Bloomy's as quick as he could, before they sped off quicker than they should have.

Maggie let out a laugh as she looked down into her hand and saw the blue condom packet that Miley had placed there. She laughed again, confused, angered and amused as she slipped it into her pocket and shook her head, spinning around to stand back on the sidewalk and out of the road. She let out a grunt of shock as she hit a muscular body pacing backwards and forwards on the sidewalk in a panic and laughed it off as the young man began to apologise to her profusely.

"I'm so sorry…" he mumbled, "Did I hurt you? Are you okay?"

Maggie smiled, "I'm fine…" she looked up at him as she checked herself over and made sure she hadn't dropped anything. His brow was laced with sweat and he looked more distressed, nervous and uncomfortable than anyone she'd seen that morning. She let a spare finger fall to point to him, "But you don't seem to be… are you okay?"

He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know… I've got this big audition on the fifth floor of this building and I want it so badly that I don't even think I can go through with it…" he laughed again, "Damn…"

Maggie's eyes brightened and she smiled at him. He was a breath of fresh air… why had Miley left so soon?

"What's your name?"

He laughed again and Maggie came to the conclusion that it was a nervous complaint he must possess because there sure wasn't anything to be laughing about.

"Nick."

Maggie smiled, "Hello Nick… I'm Maggie and I'm sure you'll be more than fine…"

He watched as Maggie pulled out one of her cigarettes and held it in her hands. She indicated the box to him, offering one up and he shook his head as she placed the cigarette in-between her teeth in a very Carrie Bradshaw-esque manner she'd learned from watching the TV when she was fourteen. She lit the white stick carefully, taking a relieved puff before looking around to hear what he had to say.

"I don't know, ya know?" he said as he stood beside her with his hands in his pockets, "I've not had a real job since I broke up with my girlfriend five years ago… I've just been… doing silly work that I can't actually put my heart into… this is my first call back for a movie and I'm so sure I'm going to blow it… but at the same time I'm desperate for the part because the story is so amazing…"

Maggie nodded. He'd already won her over.

"I've only read the script… I don't know who else is working on it and I don't know all the people who are making the movie. But I don't care, I really want this part because it's just… it's so real, ya know?"

Maggie nodded, "I have an inkling…"

"Maggie!"

Maggie jumped and turned around to see Toby at the top of the steps to the old town house looking down at her and tapping his watch to indicate they were running out of time. Nick looked at her with a confused expression as she smiled and puffed away at the cigarette desperate to flood herself with as much nicotine as she could before she hit another five hours of auditions.

"Maggie!" Toby continued, "Come on! We've got ten more guys to audition and only a few hours to do it!"

Maggie blushed and looked around guiltily at Nick who was bright red and mentally kicking himself – she could see it in his eyes.

Maggie threw the cigarette to the sidewalk and stepped on it carefully as Nick shook his head.

"You're working on this movie?"

Maggie nodded.

"How important are you?" he continued.

Maggie smiled and held out her hand, "I'm the director…"

"_Damn_…" Nick mumbled under his breath, clenching his fists and kicking the concrete beneath his feet, "How badly have I screwed up this audition already?"

Maggie laughed walking backwards towards the stairs, "Not at all…" she ran up the top of the steps and turned back to him, "In fact you're already my favourite…"

She saw his smile grow before walking inside and heading up the stairs in satisfaction. Because she wasn't lying… she liked him already.

* * *

**A/N: Opinions? What's gonna happen next? I like it when you guys guess ;). It's funny to see if you're all right or not.**

**Love Beth xo**

**PS. Coming up in my Fanfiction land:**

**Building on Failure: Chapter 15 – London Calling/Stolen - _Miley goes to London and does something she shouldn't when she runs into an unwanted companion. _  
**

**The Truth about Love: Chapter 4 – Never Ready, Always Prepared -_Miley recieves a birthday present and some shocking information from her boyfriend._  
**

**Fifteen for a Moment: Chapter 8 – The "Crap" to her "Whoops" -_ Miley has a run in with someone "tall, dark and handsome"._  
**

**Plus maybe an Inauguration related one-shot I've half written…-_Miley realises what's missing from her life, and how hard it'll be to get it back for more than one night only._**

**xo  
**


	8. The Crap To Her Whoops

**A/N: I wrote this chapter months ago and when i read it back the first time I hated it... but I've read it again, made a few minor changes that I thought were going to be major and I think I like it now. **

**Reviews and stuff... **

**Vote For me in the NJK Awards :) **

**Tell me what you think and hopefully I'll be able to conjure up the ideas to continue this story as I can neither remember or recall how it was going to go :)

* * *

**

**Chapter 8 - The "Crap" To her "Whoops"**

"Stop rushing me!"

"We're half an hour late!" she tapped the glass of her watch as she followed her around the hotel room trying to make her move her ass faster than the sloth pace it was going.

"I had to get ready!" she grabbed some lip gloss and started applying it as the older woman groaned and grabbed her belongings opening the door. It was impossible for her ever to be late. It was like the world stopped if the second hand went a minute over.

"I think I liked you better when you threw on a t-shirt and jeans and let your underwear hang out as you were walking to the supermarket…" Maggie decided shaking her head annoyed, "No make-up, hair dragged up on the top of your head, your glasses wonky on your nose… a book in your hands and your iPod in the other… failing to say a word as you begrudgingly pretended that me making you buy food so you can survive was a chore…" she sighed dramatically and glared at Miley, "If only…"

Miley stopped in the middle of the room and held out her hands, palms facing Maggie defensively as she shook her head, "I can't go and meet this guy if I'm not gonna be looking hot… or at least better than I do in my pyjamas… so _stop _rushing me!"

Maggie shook her head confused, "What does it matter?"

Miley's mouth opened in shock, "I'm going to be kissing him on and off for the next EIGHT weeks! I can't have his first impression of me as being some crazy haired, pink cheeked, twelve year-old looking maniac, can I?!"

"Is that all you're worried about?"

"Wouldn't you be…?" Miley mumbled and then Maggie realised that this was exactly like with the disguise on the plane. Make-up was her disguise and she was nervous about meeting the guy that could make or break her career alongside her, "You won't tell me anything about this guy and for some reason since you picked him mom's not returning my phone calls… So I'm thinking that either he's a complete dog or he's so hot it's like looking at Achilles or some other Greek god that's really, _really_ drool-worthy…"

"Why isn't your mom returning your phone calls?" Maggie frowned and titled her head to the side, "She seemed really happy when I told her who the guy was… and she seemed really impressed that we kept you from knowing who each other were until you met… she said it would be great to go on first impressions rather than what can be googled."

Miley shrugged as she finally pulled out her jacket from the closet and dragged the leather sleeves over her arms quickly walking towards Maggie in the doorway, "Maybe she's just ignoring me because she's never been able to keep a secret…"

Maggie nodded in agreement as they walked from the door, Miley bouncing around behind her, "Maybe…"

"So what can I know about this guy then?" Miley nudged her, her hands clasped together sweetly.

Maggie looked at her and laughed. They were going to be meeting in half an hour. There was no point in keeping certain opinions and observations private. She had to have some idea of what to expect.

"Well… he's very quiet but he's got bucket loads of potential if you ask me… he's really, really understanding the whole dynamic of who his character is and what he's supposed to do…" she let a sly smile fall onto her lips as she looked sideways and Miley while they walked in unison down the hallway to the elevator, "Plus he's _completely _your type."

"Pssh… I doubt it…"

"What?" Maggie frowned staring at her confused.

"I don't have a type… well… apart from them being preferably British…" she pressed the button inside the elevator and it started to move downwards.

"If you don't have a type then Barney isn't a Dinosaur."

She looked at her un-amused "Ha ha"

Maggie smiled and shook her head, "Trust me… you'll love him."

* * *

"Real coffee!" Miley breathed appreciatively as her mother approached her. She was slowly but surely getting used to this being busy business again. It was like riding a bike… she couldn't forget. She took the cup from her mother and downed some of the coffee quickly. Her mother was staring down at her tentatively, nodding her head like a mad woman to see if she was okay or not. She looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow, "what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

Miley shook her head and walked away from her quickly, "Then stop being weird."

"Where's Maggie?"

"She's smoking."

Her mother clicked her tongue and moved to sit next to Miley on the couch, "She'll kill herself…"

Miley shrugged her shoulders and looked at the parquet floor as though it was the most interesting thing in the world. She was nervous and she was a little scared. She'd read this script. She'd partly encouraged what had been written in it. She'd never expected that she would have to act it out. She just hoped that there were some very good special effects or that there were plenty of old tricks that they could use. She didn't want to look stupid… or suggestive, but she was dreading that day she would have to.

"Well Mom… some people have coffee… others have cigarettes… damn it some people even have chocolate milk…"

Her mother sighed, "You always were a weird kid," she looked around at the foyer and sighed, "Have you not even tried to stop her keep smoking since she got here?"

Miley nodded, "Yeah… I stole her packet, put them in a plastic bag and stashed them away in the back of the toilet like a crack dealer…"

"And?"

Miley sighed, "It was the first place she looked."

"FUCK!"

Miley and her mother jumped and turned around to see Maggie walking towards them, beating out the remaining embers of a burn hole on the hem of her t-shirt. Her rich brown curls were stuck to her face with sweat as she looked like someone had just attempted to kill her.

"Problem, dear?" Miley asked her plainly with that same old sweet smile that used to get her out of doing the cleaning when they were living together in London.

"Some fucker on a bike just rode straight past me… fast as the bloody wind, almost knocked my fag out my hand and had me doing ballerina spins trying to get a grip on it…" she paused, "So I get it… but when I'm telling the bloke how much of a wanker he is from up the street I accidentally drop it and it burns through my t-shirt…"

Miley nodded as her mother was trying not to giggle next to her, "Anyone who says you are not a genius is simply jealous, Mags…" Maggie scoffed and attempted to hit her. But as always, Miley was too quick, too agile and just too darn clever for Maggie to catch her.

"So…" Tish said with a smile picking up her purse and looking at the two young women, "Shall we go up and see this young man…?"

Miley smiled and nodded, "Firstly tell me one more thing about him…"

Maggie smiled and narrowed her eyes.

"He's tall, dark and handsome."

Miley groaned and shook her head nudging Maggie as she walked beside her, "You annoy me sometimes… I want to know something else!"

Tish laughed, "I'll tell you something else…" She looked down at her watch and Miley caught her looking nervously around the foyer trying to case the joint and see if she was still okay. She blushed and looked up at Miley with a guilty stare. She began to walk back over to the main doors and exit the restaurant. "I have to go to the lawyers. I forgot I had a meeting to see about putting all your assets back into your own name."

Miley caught her eye and frowned, "Don't you wanna come meet the guy?"

Tish turned and shook her head, "Umm… no… I think I know him well enough not to meet him…"

Miley's brain turned into overload. She stared at her mother, the doors closing on her small frame as she walked out on the sidewalk, hailing a cab and getting into it quickly. She was confused and concerned and she didn't know _what_ to think anymore. When her mother started acting weird, that was when she knew that something was wrong. And her mother had never _ever _been this weird… and they'd been through some very strange, wonderful and awful things.

"Let's go…" Maggie said to her, taking her hand and dragging her up the stairs, "We're going to be late…"

* * *

The plan had been to meet him in the private restaurant on the ground floor of the building that had become headquarters to their production team in Greenwich Village. They'd been there for a few weeks, putting finishing touches on each of the pre-production departments' work that had been happening since the green light had been given. Each afternoon they had always ignored the restaurant below them and gone to the Italian deli across the street for lunch. Maggie had ordered them to stop ignoring it and had set it as the place where her two main actors would meet for the first time. It was a risk, but Maggie was a risk taker, and she was willing to see how this one turned out, even with an entire movie riding on her every action.

Miley had no clue of the risks; she was simply nervous. She felt like she was on some weird blind date terrified and praying that the guy wasn't a murderer or a pervert.

"This is crazy." She whispered only to receive a smile from Maggie who was walking ahead of her, "Can I meet you inside…?"

Maggie turned to look at her questioningly, "Why?"

Miley smiled nervously, "I just need to go and freshen up…"

Maggie shook her head, "You and your anxiety."

She nodded to her and walked ahead into the restaurant leaving Miley standing there silently by the ladies room like an idiot. She took a deep breath and stepped into the bathroom quickly. She looked into the mirror and stared at herself.

_You can do this… you can do this… it's just a job… he's a work colleague… he's just going to be a work colleague… like Mitchell or Cody used to be. _She didn't have to feel like this. Just because she was going to have to kiss this guy quite a lot… and you know… pretend to have sex with him on a two day shoot in a New York Loft Maggie had scouted for specially. It wasn't like she was going to have to fall for him… he was just a guy. She could handle guys… she'd known lots of guys… all different types of guys. It took a special kind of guy to grind her gears and get her thinking. She was going to be fine. He was just a guy… a tall, dark, handsome guy that she was going to be doing so many things she'd been craving for years.

_Suck it up, Kid._

She walked out of the bathroom; her prized smile plastered to her face as she stood in the doorway and scouted the room looking for Maggie. Backwards and forwards her eyes went across the room… where the heck was she? She scanned the room again and again. She was going to kill her… she was going to ring her neck for not telling her where she was meant to go. This was what happened when people kept things secret. People got confused and wasted precious and valuable time. Secrets were stupid and they often ended in disaster. This secret… this "little surprise" was something that Miley had never wanted and she was sure as hell that it was going to be one of the surprises and secrets that turned to mayhem. She would show Maggie Valentine mayhem when she got her hands -

"Crap!" she mumbled.

Her mouth dropped, a yelp escaped her lips and she dropped to her knees hiding behind the waiters table filled with napkins and salt shakers. Her eyes grew wide and she knelt up to see Maggie, stood by the bar with _him _standing next to her looking older, filled out and reserved. His eyes looked more tired and less brighter than they used to as he held a glass of water in his hand, laughing in his new group of movie producers and production designers. He was laughing with Maggie and she was patting him on the back. Miley could almost hear her making her excuses to come looking for their second guest of honour.

"Are you okay there Miss?"

She shot up, standing straight; spine vertical and perfect. Her posture was uncomfortable and all she wanted to do was slouch and hide. She looked at the waiter and nodded as he looked at her questioningly like he didn't see a girl knelt, hiding behind a table from the boy whose heart she broke five years ago after months of hurt, pain and sadness, on every single shift he had took.

She nodded crazily, looking just like her mother, as she gripped onto her purse with all her might.

"I'm fine! I'm _fine_!"

Then Maggie was stood in front of her too and she was resting a hand on Miley's arm asking her how she was. Miley was simply getting flustered. She was getting… _breathe_… she didn't know what the hell she was doing other than standing there and breathing. Five years was a _long _amount of time to avoid something… There was taking some time for yourself and then there was doing what she had done… she had been a complete _psycho_. A press release announcing her resignation and retirement, a text message and a kiss goodbye to her mother was all that she'd left behind… that and a trail of mistakes she had yet to fix.

Her eyes were fixed on him. His curly hair was still as easy to identify five years and a lot of growing later. He looked like he was only a few inches taller, but quite a significant amount wider. His shoulders were bigger, his chest too… he looked all grown up.

"I'm fine… I'm fine…" she repeated breathlessly. Maggie continued to ask her what was wrong, bringing the attention to her to everyone in the room, who were all gasping in shock.

Her life seemed to go in slow motion after that. Her eyes stayed on him as his own darted from each of the other people that surrounded him, failing to see the commotion and the uproar that Miley had caused by entering the restaurant. She watched as one by one, the people around him turned to see where everyone was looking, noticing her as her eyes darted to each at them when the realisation dawned on their faces. They'd been sworn to secrecy too apparently… threatened to be fired by someone that not even Maggie could reveal. The relief dawned on their faces as he continued to stare around him confused and bewildered.

Then it happened. His eyes moved to her direction, he wavered for a moment in one direction focusing his eyes. He looked at her for what seemed forever, directly in the eyes. She was sure he believed she wasn't there because it was like he was staring right through her and through the door behind her. It was like he was daydreaming, like he wasn't even looking at her and he was completely fazed by everything.

But soon, his jaw set in a way she'd only ever seen once when she'd done something so wrong she could never take it back. His eyes clouded over and his brow furrowed and creased until he was ugly and bitter, staring at her like he was facing the devil himself. She could see his jaw moving as he ground his teeth in a way that would usually make her skin crawl. But her skin was already crawling, crawling with Goosebumps that he'd inflicted on her just by being the person that she was supposed to be meeting. She knew it without any words. He was the one she was meant to be here for and from the anger in his eyes she knew that he knew it too. She could see just by the way his hands fisted into his pockets and his whole aura sucked the air into a vacuum, that one thing was for sure: He still hated her and everything that she had done.

"What's wrong?" Maggie said as she noticed the connection.

Miley smiled nervously as she continued to look at him, unable to tear her eyes away from him, still as beautiful as ever.

"Nick..." she muttered to her with a subtle shake of her head, trying to think of an excuse to what was happening, attempting to tell him that this wasn't her fault, that she didn't know... but it was too late. By the time she had opened her mouth and he'd heard her speak, just say his name, he was already storming away, across the restaurant and out of the door, leaving Miley dumbstruck in his wake, with everyone staring at her. It was Maggie's face that came back into focus first, rounding on her and staring at her shocked.

Maggie frowned, "You know him…"

Miley nodded taking in the hate he had displayed, the anger he had refused to release himself of so unreluctantly.

"He's the reason I left."

Maggie's jaw fell to the floor and she hurried to pick it up. She looked at Miley and shook her head.

"Whoops."

* * *

**A/N: Reviews? :) Please?**

**I don't know what happens next other than Miley's going to scream at Maggie for what she's unknowingly done :) **

**xxx**


End file.
